Verticalities Manuel Atreide

I have always liked stairs. Maybe because
I grew up in a single storey house; but there were stairs elsewhere ... In my
grandparents’ house for example. On tuesday evenings, we used to hide in the
stairway to look, through a small hole, at the movies we did not have the right
to watch.

At school as well, there were stairs.
Grand staircases to access the park at the nursery school, grand staircases to
go to class in primary school, or college. Large stairs at Corneille High
School in Rouen, where I tumbled to rush into my classrooms.

I have gone up and down these stairs, to
move forward. This is what often amuses me : stairs seem to go around in
circles and yet they allow us to go up or down. A staircase is a fine joker,
thus it’s very human. It can be wobbly and yet absorb the shock of thousands of
feet drumming on it every day, every hour, almost every minute. It can be made
of stone, it can be straight, majestic, a place of power. It can be modern,
old, avant-garde or retro, private or a parade place. It may even be natural.

Moreover, stairways are often beautiful.
They’re not always easy to photograph, but they are architectural objects that like
photographers. For that alone, I love and shoot them.

Welcome to their world.

Escaliers-011Notre
Dame des Victoires – Paris. This modern staircase has chosen to live in a
baroque church.

Escaliers-090Chateau
de Trevarez – Saint Goazec: this bright caterpillar adorned with a bronze tint
that staircase which is anything but beautiful in its simple geometry.

Escaliers-101Grand
Phare – Ile de Sein : Screwing up endlessly from the darkness, into the
light.

Escaliers-106Le
Louvre – Paris : this nice little secret staircase is actually a shortcut
between the French painting and Pharaonic Egypt. The staircase is also a
machine to travel back through time

Escaliers-132Le
Louvre – Paris : Take these tourists into your merry-go-round, beautiful
staircase, they are oblivious of the technological and architectural feat you
are. this is your ultimate beauty, you hide your true self behind your role.

Escaliers-190L'observatoire
– Paris : It is the shortest one and yet this staircase takes you to the
stars with his sidekick, the telescope.